A collective of hacker groups plans to attack the websites of major government agencies and banks on Tuesday to protest American foreign policy.
For weeks, the groups, which include Anonymous, have used social media to publicize their planned operation, dubbed "#OpUSA." In a post on the file-sharing site Pastebin, one member of Anonymous laid out an ambitious list of targets, including the websites of the White House, the Defense Department, the FBI, Bank of America and Chase Bank.
“Anonymous will make sure that this May 7th will be a day to remember,” the post said, adding the planned attacks are meant as a response to "multiple war crimes" committed by the United States in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In the past, however, Anonymous has hyped plans to launch coordinated attacks but ended up having little impact, security experts say. Last month, Anonymous launched #OpIsrael, which promised to “wipe Israel off the internet.” That operation was "a total failure," Ronen Kenig, director of security solutions for Radware, told The Daily Beast last month.